BALLARAT’S St John of God Hospital is the first in Western Victoria to use a new procedure for removing haemorrhoids. General surgeon Mr Douraid Abbas, who was the first to use the method last week, said pain reduction was the greatest benefit. “Patients used to go home agonising ... whereas now the pain is minimal,” he said. “My first patient even refused paracetamol.” The Haemorrhoidal Artery Ligation - Recto Anal Repair (HAL-RAR) procedure reduces the two-to-three-week recovery period to a matter of days. The old method resulted in scarring, catheters for 25 per cent of patients and at least one overnight stay at the hospital, according to Mr Abbas. “The HAL-RAR is just less messy,” he said. The HAL-RAR device incorporates a small window allowing stitches to be placed around arteries, while using a doppler guided probe to locate and ligate haemorrhoidal arteries. This allows minimal invasion and a far lower complication rate, Mr Abbas said.